I was looking through The New York Times today and found a really interesting article on race in recent elections.
The article chronicles a county in Alabama and states that "a few weeks ago, voters in a county that is more than 96 percent white chose a genial black man, James Fields, to represent them in the State House of Representatives. It is a historic first, but the moment is full of awkwardness...Yet in a state once synonymous with racial strife, there is no denying this milestone, for all its tentativeness. Everyone — the voter in Cullman, the Alabama politician, the local historian — is rubbing his or her eyes, a little."
This is particularly interesting in regard to the 2008 primary elections. As we all know, Sen. Barak Obama took Alabama, beating out Sen. Hilary Clinton by 14 percent. The tides really are turning. When it comes down to it some states in the dirty south would just rather have a black president than a female one. I'm not complaining. I think it's great that society is starting to come around. "The times, they are a changing."
Let me know what you think by leaving me a comment below.
1 comments:
Let's not get to celebrating yet. Although the Democratic race is now between a black man and a white woman, the general election will pit one of them against a white man. A resounding loss or a horrendous gaffe by the Democrat could set back the hopes of other minority politicians rather than breaking through the glass ceiling.
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